Habanita Molinard

Desirability: Full bottle

Source: Fragrantica

Refined. Warm. Inviting.

Habanita is more my cup of leather/vanilla than the whisper-soft suede/vanilla that is Cuir Beluga from Guerlain's exclusive L 'Art et la Matière line. As much as I am a loyal fan of Guerlain and as much as I appreciate the quality and class of Cuir Beluga...it's a shade too sheer for my enjoyment, resembling the easygoing soft suede Cuir Ottoman, a scent I like but not love. 

Habanita is definitely not a light fragrance but neither is it as dark and dangerous as its bottle suggests and I can't recommend this as a "strictly" leather scent. Put it simply, both Cuir Beluga and Cuir Ottoman are blonde suedes and Habanita is a dark suede. When asked to recommend leather scents, what comes to mind are the likes of Cuir de Russie, Anubis and Cuir Mauresque to name a few. Habanita wears more like an Oriental vanilla scent, infused with a leather note that is more prominent at the beginning then fading away by the drydown. Never harsh but a smooth and thoroughly enjoyable polished leather smell that captures the luxuriousness of Habanita as it smoulders its way into an amber base- sweet vanilla with a generous amount of smoky resins thrown emanating a heart-warming glow for hours.

A wonderful creation with an average projection and very good longevity. I recently adopted a bottle of this beauty who keeps her softer and more feminine sibling Habanita L'Esprit company. By the way I know there is endless debate on whether Habanita L'Esprit deserves to be named as such and having spent time with both, I do agree that they share DNA. 

Habanita L'Esprit Molinard

Habanita L'Esprit starts off heavy but winds up soft after about an hour so I tend to carry my bottle around with me. I've never tried the original Habanita or the 2012 eau de parfum version so I regretfully can't compare them at this time. 

I have been weaning myself off the risky habit of blind buys but this one was a successful gamble as Habanita L'Esprit has all the notes I enjoy, being a well-orchestrated combination of an unclean musk, leather, resins and powder. I say unclean as it's more smutty than a clean musk like The Body Shop's White Musk but not enough to join the legion of dark musks like Kiehl's Original Musk. The leathery labdanum and musk stand out during the first hour but slink away thereafter so that in the drydown you get sweet warm resins and citrus-tinged vanilla powder. This part reminds me a little of Guerlain's Shalimar but with less vanilla than in Shalimar. Overall a nice and cosy scent that's worth its price.